Family Picture Time!

The Cards and the Nygrens

The sleepover!

The Robrecht kids pyramid

The Robrecht Family

The ENTIRE Robrecht Family

January thru March

January –
The Big Move… we are into our new house! Thanks to a lot of help from ward members and family, the old house has fresh paint, ultra cleaned and plumbing leak fixed to get it all ready for the renters. They moved in on February 1^st. They are really nice people with one son at home that is a senior.

Our new home is like heaven to us. The first night we were here I looked at Mike and said, I feel like we are staying in a really nice hotel. I just love so many things about it! I love that whenever anything isn’t working correctly, I just call the builder.

Our second week at church I was called to teach the 3 year olds in Primary (the Sunbeams). They are a handful, exhausting, but also so cute. I love them!

February

The Big Party. Having the Robrecht family reunion at our new house was great fun. How lucky are our kids that they get to have so many cousins that they get to hang out with? I feel so blessed that our family picture turned out so well. I can’t believe we caught everyone smiling with their eyes open. Mike was rewarded from work with a Nikon D5000 digital SLR camera that arrived the day before the party. What great timing to catch some memories in the making. I love the pictures it takes and can’t believe the difference, just on auto setting, between the SLR and a point and shoot. Yes, it’s big, but it’s worth lugging around. I enjoyed playing games, going to the park with the kids, and all going to church together. The Chinese Gardens were beautiful (went with Dan, Becca, and Mom) and then a few weeks later I took the girls (and Cassidy - who is basically one of my girls too) to a free day at the Japanese Gardens.

By February we were settled enough to start the twins on Tae Kwon Do and Ally on horseback riding lessons. I have also started to take voice lessons, trying to learn to sing Alto. The girls’ piano teacher teaches me for just $10 a lesson. It’s actually somewhat discouraging. Maybe I’m too old to learn something new? I can sing it at home when it’s just me singing and plunking out the top hand of the hymns, but at church it’s so hard to hear when everyone else is singing. ***sigh*** maybe I should just leave the singing to my girls. But I think I’ll try it for at least a year and see if I can make some progress.

We really enjoyed having Janet and her kids stay with us for almost two weeks. It was a bummer for them because they had to move out due to the mold in their rental house, but we had lots of fun together. We had a little “fireworks” party in the garage, the kids played lots of Wii games and “boys against girls”, and we celebrated Makayla’s birthday. We were so happy to have the extra room to welcome them in. I corrupted Janet by having her watch “The Bachelor” with me - it was the last two episodes. She was a good example to me (I even ironed some of Mike’s shirts the next week, after she ironed Jeff’s shirts. I mean, she’s in the process of moving, in-between homes, and yet she is still ironing his shirts! I have trouble ironing Mike’s shirts on a good week!) I also followed her example and decorated the downstairs after Katie and Liz went to bed for their birthday, like she does for her kids, and did for Makayla while they were staying here. We enjoyed some good late night talks and making meals together. Janet is amazing and just gives so much to those around her! We really miss them staying with us!

We celebrated Katie and Liz's birthday at Red Robin, and then a few days later they had a Spa Party with 12 of their school friends and some of their cousins. We set up spa stations for foot soak, hair salon, toes and nails, and making body glitter & bath salts. Then we all did peel off facial makes complete with cucumber of the eyes. It was a huge success.

I was sick for almost two weeks with a cold turned into sinus infection, ear infections, and two cold sores. Ick. To top it off, once I was better I had some sort of allergic reaction to something… maybe Augmenton (antibiotic) and Acyclovir (antiviral) combined that gave me a sunburn like rash all over my face. Sigh… this moral world we live in…

The big break – spring break! We enjoyed a fun trip to the beach with Jeff & Janet at the condo they stay at in Cannon Beach. The first two days were cold and windy, but the last two days were perfect. Nana and the girls played on the beach for probably 4 hours, climbing the rocks and playing in the ocean. We built big sand castles and dug deep holes and buried people in the sand. I love being away from home and playing games and watching movies and snuggling with my girls. It was also fun to come back home again to our new house J. Liz got tonsillitis the last day we were there.

Congrats to Jeff and Janet on their new house! We enjoyed a great birthday/Easter/House warming party this Saturday. Thanks for having us all over.

Today Mike was called as the Gospel Doctrine teacher and I got an additional calling as the Young Women ward camp leader. I am excited to get to go to camp with Ally and we both will get to know and serve more people in our new ward.

Sunbeam Funnies

This entry is to capture all the funny things my sunbeams say...

5-2-10 The lessons was on bodies. We were talking about each body part and what it does. I asked Ava, "What do we do with our nose?" she said. "We pick it."

Sawyer stepped on Olivia's fingers. I said, "Sawyer, it would be nice to say to Olivia." "I can't," he said, point at his mouth full of fishy crackers, "I've got a full mouth." Nice to say a whole sentence to me with his mouth full but he can't say "I'm sorry!"

I brought some items in a bag of things we use to take care of our body like a toothbrush, washcloth, ball (to exercise), an apple (keep it clean on the inside...). I had a bar of soap I brought out after the apple. "Who wants to taste the soap?" I asked them, joking around. Ooops, I guess three year olds aren't aware that soap doesn't taste good. Carlos volunteered. I said, "Are you sure? I don't think it tastes good." He was sure and took a big bite. He obviously didn't like it and spit it out, yet almost all the rest of the kids in the class still wanted to taste the soap! Am I a bad teacher if I let them??? Because I did! I mean, I figured it was a good learning experience. The funniest part was most of them didn't just take a little lick - they actually bit it! I'm sure they went home to their parents and told them that they teacher fed them soap! We finally decided as a class that soap should be used to clean the outside of their bodies - not the inside!

3-28-10 We had two visitors in class today, both Henry's cousins. I asked them their names. One of them is Ivory. The other little girl told me her name, but I couldn't understand her. "Hannah? I asked her." She shook her head no and repeated her name. It started with an "s" and sound like Santa. "Sienna?" No. I asked Henry, "What is your cousins name? I can't understand it." "I don't know" he told me.
You don't know your cousin's name?
No.
Ivory, what is your cousin's name?
I don't know.
Is it Santa?
(giggling) No!
What is it? I know you know your cousin's name!
Henry: (in his deep "man" voice) I am going to take her and scoop her up in my tractor and dump her in big pile of dirt because I don't know her name!
(laughter from all the sunbeams, "Santa" included.
Fine, I say, I am just going to call her Santa!
Which I did for the rest of the class.
(It turns out her name is Savannah.)

When asked why they need sleep Henry replied (in his deep "man" voice): to get strong so we can take people down!

On Valentine's day Hailey brought everyone Valentine's day cards. Henry stands up and says, "I forgot to give everyone their Valentine's day hugs!" And then he goes around the room hugging all the other three year olds (some of which weren't very well received.) But Hailey said enthusiastically, "Thank You Henry! You are my best friend!"

"Excuse me," says Henry, "I just had a bottom burp." "They come out of your bottom," he says, patting his bum.

Too much time...

O.K. it's official, I'm spending too much time "couponing". Yes, I'm saying about $200 -300 per month on groceries, but it's getting in the way of doing the things I want/need to do. So after much thought on what to do, I think I've figured it out.
I am going to scan the Sunday paper for coupons that are for items that I normally buy. Then I will go to ebay or other websites that sell bulk coupons and buy these coupons in bulk. For example, I just bought 20 $2.00 off a half gallon of silk soymilk for $4. I will make a menu Thursday morning and go grocery shopping for the week. It's hard to say "no" to all the wonderful deals and freebies out there, but I found myself at a store almost every day...
What do I want to do? I don't want to have any regrets when I look back on my life. So I want to spend the time I have taking care of and really enjoying my kids and family, getting in better health, and growing my testimony.
My first goal - lose 10 pounds! I need to lose more, but I want to start small. I will follow the weight watchers plan, make myself a menu and include "emergency foods" for when I feel really hungry - popcorn and ww ice cream bars to start with!
My thoughts today - it takes ACTION. Just like faith. It's one thing to say you believe in God, but what really counts are that your ACTIONS show that you believe in God. So it's one thing to say I want to lose 10 pounds, and have the knowledge of how to do it, but the hardest part is putting that knowledge into ACTION. The hard part is saying "No" to all the treats and junk food and second helpings. I've had the knowledge on how to for a long time. I am going to concentrate on the actions now. I will post every pound I lose :) Sorry to bore any readers, but this is more for me than for you :) Just ignore me!

And the Couponing Begins...

If all your friends were couponing, does that mean you have to coupon to??? Yes, apparently it does if they are getting all sorts of awesome deals and you are left paying $2.00 for tube a toothpaste instead of .50 cents! Or getting stuff for free... or actually getting money back!!! So this week I bought three Sunday papers and have been saving all the coupon books for several weeks. I was able to buy six boxes of ziplock bags and will actually get money back (after two $5.00 rebates, three coupons, and three double coupons at Albertsons). I also got free kitty treats and Tony's Pizzas for $3.00 each plus three free redbox movies... Life Cereal for $1.00 box, and Quaker Granola Bars for about .80 a box.
On the down side - it did take me several hours to figure out what I was doing. But hey, I'm new at this, it's only going to get easier. I also bought Toll House Cookie pre-made cookies for about .75 each package (Usually about $3). The nice thing is I can cook up just six in our little toaster oven and we can have warm cookies every night. The bad thing is... I can cook up just six in our little toaster oven and we can have warm cookies every night!!!! (I ate two tonight....) So - those are going in our freezer so I only make them for special occasions. I told myself when I started this that I would only buy stuff we normally eat, not junk food just because it's cheap!
It's a fun adventure - seeing how much I can save. Especially when our food bill is usually about $600 a month. I know - I like to cook! The other up side is I usually mostly shop at Walmart, but since I'm going into other stores I am able to buy other things that are on sale (like grapes at Freddies for 99 cents a lb.), or clearance meat at Safeway, because I am already there.
I'm trying to save money on groceries so I can buy new furniture!!!

Back to School!

Back to School Time! Katie and Liz are in 3rd grade in Mr. Izer's class. Ally is going to 6th grade at West Orient Middle School (yikes! middle school!) Katie informed me as she was going to bed the day before school started that she WAS NOT going to school the next day. No way. I told her she didn't have a choice, but for some reason she still thought she did. When I asked her why she said there were three reasons. #1 - she didn't want to be away from me. #2 - Ally wasn't going to her school anymore. #3 - She didn't know her teacher (he's new to the school this year.) I told her if she had a good attitude about going to school the next day, I would lay with her that night. She said no. A few minutes later she came into my room and said she changed her mind, she would like me to lay with her and would try to have a good attitude about school the next day. She went to school just fine :)
Katie and Liz are mad that Ally doesn't have to wear a uniform. I loved that I didn't have to buy Katie and Liz one speck of clothing for school - they get all of Ally's and her friend Michelle's hand-me-downs. Gotta love that! I also had fun going school shopping with Ally. She's no longer in the girls section - it's juniors! It was a little hard to find pants that weren't really low cut on the waist. I found three pairs of great jeans at a garage sale for $2 each. My only frustration now is that Ally would like to wear the same two pair of pants and two t-shirts all the time. She has enough shirts for at least three weeks, if not four, but she wears the same thing all the time. I know I shouldn't care if she doesn't, but for some reason I do!

Contemplating Life

Hello, long lost blog. I spent part of today, this beautiful, relaxing, Sunday - contemplating life and trying to figure it out. I made a schedule for our family. It involves getting the girls up at 6:30 so we have time for brushing teeth, making beds, and even practicing the piano for 15 minutes each. The after school schedule involves the kids unpacking their lunches and backpacks right as we walk in the door and *gasp* even hanging them up on the hooks where they belong. I even scheduled free time, because, especially after a long day of school - I like to give them, and they really NEED an hour of good play time, unobstructed by a "let's get things done" Mom.
But the thing I'm struggling with is this, what good is the schedule if I drive myself nuts (and my family) trying to force everyone to follow it? Yes, they are all good things on the schedule. But why am I the only one who cares about it???? (Not counting Mike, who does care about important things like scriptures and prayer, FHE, and family fun night) I just am struggling to teach my kids the value of hard work. Maybe it's because I don't work them hard enough??? Maybe it's because life is just to easy for them? If I am all grumpy because we aren't on schedule, or even remotely close to on schedule, should I have one at all? But to me that's like saying "I'm not going to set any goals because it's too hard to keep them." I don't know. Just thinking out loud. And not looking forward to dragging the girls out of bed in the morning.
I've been reading a lot of zenhabits.com - my favorite blog and another new blog by the author - mnmlist.com about minimalistic living. About doing less. About enjoying the moment. I loved this part of an article I read:

Inspiration lives in the present
There is an amazing short video with Brother David Steindle-Rast – a Christian monk. As a boy, he experienced the last years of World War II in Germany. He tells of great hardships: never knowing where the next meal would come from, having to queue for hours for a small pitcher of water, and seeing bombs fall all around him.

Would you be anxious in a situation like this?

Surprisingly, Brother David wasn’t anxious – his experience was completely the opposite: it was one of the happiest times in his life! How could that be? His explanation is quite simple. Because there seemed no possibility of survival and no hope for the future, all he could do was to be in the present moment. This created a deep sense of happiness – in the midst of all that suffering.

Back to me - I want to live in the now with a deep sense of peace and happiness. Not sure how to do that. I am making some little goals for myself, like meditating. Like enjoying each moment. I am laying with my girls for 10 min. each at bedtime. That's my gift to them and to me and to their childhood. I want to enjoy those moments with them. A Schedule is good. Being happy is better. Organization is good. That brings peace of mind.

I'll end with a favorite quote, something I really am working on: “Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” - Lao Tzu